CHAPTER 94: UNKNOWN LOCATION

The next time Finn woke up, it was to a sound.

It started distant and muffled. A stirring noise that grew steadily louder and clearer, until it seemed to be right beside his ears.

His eyes snapped open and he lurched upward, grasping at empty air as if his body still remembered drowning, as if it still thought it needed to claw its way to the surface.

Thankfully, the sound stopped immediately he snapped up.

But Finn couldn’t pay it any mind yet.

He sat frozen, breathing hard with wide eyes as his mind scrambled to process where he was and what had happened. The last thing he remembered clearly was falling into the water twenty meters from shore. But after that... nothing.

Had he drowned? Had someone pulled him out?

A sharp throb pulsed through his skull and he clutched his head with a grimace. There was pain, but it was manageable. Much more manageable than what he would’ve thought to experience upon waking up after that ordeal.

He blinked repeatedly, then carefully turned his head to take in his surroundings.

I’m in a room. He realized with a mixture of relief and confusion.

Around him, large windows — more like deliberate cutouts in the stone wall — let in streams of afternoon light. Through them, Finn could see that the building he was currently in sat on a hillside overlooking a vast green forest below.

And beyond that, the ocean stretched to the horizon where, even further in the distance, the towering frozen wave of the Stagnant Sea stood like a wall touching the sky.

Except this time he was looking at it from the opposite side.

I actually made it across... he thought with something between amazement and disbelief.

Suddenly, his ears picked up a slight shuffle from his side and instantly, his wings reacted on pure instinct, cutting through the air sharply towards the sound.

A shrill shriek immediately pierced the air, and abruptly, Finn froze, withdrawing his wings.

"Wait! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—"

He stopped, staring at the figure before him.

It was a... girl? A... woman? Finn struggled for the right word.

She looked human in almost every way. She had two arms, two legs, similar proportions and features to a human overall. But there also jarring differences that made him know he was clearly not looking at a human at all.

For starters, she had much more elongated ears that pointed upwards prominently. On her forehead, two curved horns jutted out and arced backward. And most strikingly, white fur that was short and pristine like an animal’s pelt covered her forearms and legs from the knees down.

Besides those, the rest of her skin was normal and human-looking where it showed beneath the fur. And if not for the distinctly animal quality of the white hair coating her limbs, Finn might have thought it was just body hair. But the way it caught the light, the uniform texture of it...

Yeah it’s definitely fur.

The girl’s eyes were pale gray, almost silver, framed by white eyebrows and lashes that matched the long white hair cascading over her shoulders.

She stared at Finn with wide eyes showing pure fright, looking at him like he was some alien creature whose actions she couldn’t predict.

Finn raised both hands in what he hoped was a universal gesture of peace, keeping his movements slow and deliberate. "I’m not going to hurt you," he said softly, watching as the terror on her face gradually eased into wary watchfulness.

She observed him carefully, and very slowly, curiosity started to bleed into the caution in her expression.

"Who are you?" Finn asked, keeping his tone as calm and non-threatening as possible.

She continued staring.

"Where am I?" he tried again.

Still just those wide, watchful eyes.

"Ah. Right," Finn muttered to himself. "I guess you don’t understand me."

He shifted on the bed, moving slowly so as not to startle her again. Pointing to himself, he spoke clearly: "Finn." He tapped his chest for emphasis. "Finn."

The girl’s posture relaxed fractionally as she began to understand his intent.

"Finn," he repeated, enunciating carefully. Then he gestured toward her with an open palm, raising his eyebrows in question.

She seemed to deliberate for a moment. Her wariness was still very much evident, but it was beginning to fade quickly.

Then finally, with a soft, lustrous voice, she spoke:

"F—Fi-nn."

Finn nodded encouragingly.

"Finn," she said again, testing the word, rolling it around in her mouth.

He smiled and tapped his chest once more. "Finn." Then gestured to her again.

Understanding dawned fully in her eyes as she finally picked up the fact he was asking for her name. She then straightened slightly and said:

"Vryllacurjurtritis."

"What?" Finn blurted before he could stop himself. "That sounds like a disease or something—"

He instinctively caught himself then remembered she couldn’t understand his words.

"Sorry," he apologized anyway. "That’s just... very long."

He then looked at her for a moment in contemplation before snapping his fingers.

"Vrylla?" He said, shortening the name.

The girl immediately attempted to correct him, speaking the full name again, but stopped when she realized he was deliberately shortening it. A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth as she repeated the shortened version, testing it out.

"Vrylla," she said, seeming pleased with how it sounded.

Finn nodded, feeling the first real hint of relief since waking. At least he’d established basic communication. Now he just needed to figure out how to ask where he was.

But before he could, he picked up the sound of heavy footsteps echoing from somewhere beyond the room.

The door swung open and a man stepped through, already saying something in the same flowing language Vrylla had used. But he stopped mid-sentence when his eyes found Finn sitting upright on the bed.

Finn stared at the man with a blank, but dangerous expression, immediately assessing whether he was a threat or not.

The first thing he noticed was the resemblance between the man and Vrylla. He had the same white hair as she did. The same pale gray eyes, the same pointed ears and backward-curving horns... He was clearly Vrylla’s father.

But where she was perhaps five-foot-six, he stood at least six-foot-five, with a lean, muscular build that spoke of his strength and agility.

More importantly, he moved like a fighter.

His strides were measured and controlled, he moved calmly with his hands swinging by his side naturally, but Finn could see the tightness in them that suggested they could snap into action at any moment.

The man’s focus appeared to be on Vrylla, but Finn could still feel the man’s attention on his every movement like a predator watching a prey.

The man calmly said something in his language to his daughter. He gestured to her with one hand in a "come here" motion while his eyes never left Finn.

Vrylla rose and moved to her father’s side, and he immediately pulled her behind him in a smooth motion, still watching Finn with open wariness.

Then he spoke to her again, this time in what was clearly an instruction.

Finn met his gaze steadily, keeping his own posture relaxed but ready. He was in no condition to fight if it came to that, but he wouldn’t show weakness either.

After a receiving her father’s instructions, Vrylla immediately left the room. But not without casting a last glance at Finn.

But Finn wasn’t watching her.

His eyes were on her father instead.

It was now the two of them left in the room.

Finn watched the man as he walked to the small table beside the bed where he sat.

On it, a cup of something was steaming gently.

The man picked up a wooden spoon and resumed mixing the contents of the cup calmly, adding one final pinch of something from a pouch at his belt before grunting.

He then turned and extended the cup toward Finn.

Finn glanced down at the offering. A murky liquid with rainbow patterns shimmering across its surface like oil on water.

"Oh, there’s no way I’m drinking that."

.

.

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A/N: Third Chapter incoming...